Well, I’m now halfway through the Night’s Dawn Trilogy (still love that this trilogy is six books long for reasons other than the Douglas Adams I kept on writing new books for the series
reasons). To repeat stuff on the earlier books, there’s nothing particularly deep in this volume. Hamilton still writes good characters, and the plotting is pretty consistent. It’s still tough to remember who is who, and context switching is a bitch. To illustrate, there are 5½ pages at the beginning just listing all the characters as a reminder for those who have gone a few months since reading The Reality Dysfunction. Hamilton does a decent job of keeping a lot of plates spinning.
Basic plot is after the jump, so as to not spoil those who haven’t yet read The Reality Dysfunction.
Joshua Calvert isn’t a particularly large character this time around. Instead, our focus turns to Alkad Mzu. She’s the Garissian who invented the Alchemist, a weapon of incredible power. Everyone wants the weapon, and everyone wants her. She escapes to reconstitute the Alchemist and exact revenge on the Omuta system that destroyed the Garissa homeworld. In addition, the dead are expanding and taking over more bodies and some planetary systems. One of the returning dead is Al Capone, who quickly builds an organization that takes over New California. The Confederation can contain the zombies, but can’t defeat them at this point. And they really don’t want the possessed getting hold of the Alchemist. Our other main plot (there are lots of other ones), concerns Louise and Genevieve Kavanagh. Louise being pregnant with Calvert’s child, she uses her wiles, money, and influence in an attempt to escape the quick takeover of Norfolk. She’s helped by the returned soul of Fletcher Christian.
And that about it. Stay tuned for a review of part 2 eventually.
Author: Peter F. Hamilton
Title: The neutronium alchemist: part 1: consolidation
Series: Night’s dawn
Publisher: Aspect / Hachette
Format: Mass market paperback
Length: 591 p.
Publication date: April 1998
ISBN-10: 0-446-60517-4
LC classification: PR6058.A5536 N48 1997
